Xbox fans waited a year for last night’s press conference. That’s not a slight, but it needs to be put into context: there’s been no PlayStation Experience equivalent over the past 12 months from the folks in Redmond; the company certainly didn’t hold any media briefings at the Tokyo Game Show. No, what you saw last night was your single annual update from Microsoft – and it showed how far behind the company continues to be.

Let’s be clear here: there were some great games on display at last night’s showcase – and many of them you’ll be playing on the PlayStation 4. The green giant leaned heavily on launch exclusives and world premieres: padding to fulfil Phil Spencer’s quota. Many of these games looked great – the Blade Runner-esque The Last Night a particular standout – but very few of them demonstrated why you’ll need an Xbox One X, the most powerful console in the world. Apparently.

Again, the likes of ANTHEM and Assassin’s Creed Origins dazzled – but outside of Forza Motorsport 7, the platform holder’s first-party didn’t do anything to justify the existence of the organisation’s new box; Crackdown 3 was even lacking its trademark destruction – though allegedly it still exists, the manufacturer just decided against showing it on stage for some reason. To be fair, Ori and the Will of the Wisps looked lovely, too – the only other new Microsoft published title announced by the way.

The manufacturer would perhaps argue that the advantages of the Xbox One X will be fully demonstrated by the likes of Destiny 2, Star Wars Battlefront, and Call of Duty: WWII: big third-party blockbusters that unfortunately have their marketing tied to PlayStation. But the big takeaway from last night’s show for us is that the conversation’s already changed, and Microsoft’s once again showing it’s two steps behind.

Because despite the existence of the PlayStation 4 Pro, the conversation surrounding Sony this year has not been one of power but of content instead. Yakuza 0 and Persona 5 – ostensibly two PlayStation 3 ports – didn’t delight because of their graphics. Nor did NieR Automata or What Remains of Edith Finch. Even an argument could be made for Horizon: Zero Dawn – yes, it’s one of the best looking games ever made, but it’s the characters and gameplay that made it feel so fresh.

And as we await a Sony press conference expected to be stuffed wall-to-wall with predominantly exclusive games, it reinforces the notion that we’re seeing a Microsoft still very much two steps behind. Power mattered when these new-gen consoles were fresh and had similar libraries – but the PS4 now has by far the best selection of software, and no amount of teraflops is going to bridge that gap. The game of catch-up goes on, but PlayStation continues to have a huge head-start.

Do you agree with Sammy that Microsoft is still playing catch-up? Do you think that he's not giving Xbox enough credit for creating the most powerful console ever made? Flop out your thoughts in the comments section below.

I know I am going to come across as an Xbox fanboy - but to be clear I own PS4 and Xbox. I love both! A lot!

However, I disagree with the article entirely; sure maybe there are established things been shown but so? I for one love Forza Motorsport so 7 should be great (while I wait for Gran Turismo Sport - we all know how long Polyphony take!).

I personally thought the MS conference was slick and to the point. A ton of great looking games being shown off; some exclusive, some not. Hell it sure beats the unveiling of Xbox One all those years ago - what an absolute mess that was.

Ultimately I just enjoy games - couldnt care who makes them and for what. Bring on the Sony event tonight - should be exciting.

I don't care about graphics, I care about games and MS failed to deliver. All of the exclusives will be on PC too and most of them wont need a powerfull one to play them, so MS failed to give me a good reason to buy XboX1X.

With certain exclusivity rights to the likes of Call of Duty, FIFA, and Destiny I feel like Microsoft were always falling short of what they could actually show. I wanted them to at least sizzle-real ALL of the games they have coming out, whether they're cross-platform or not, but they came up empty on that front.

They had my interest for the first 10 minutes with the "most powerful console" line because it's true, but they lost my interest for the hour and a half after that because none of it really showcased it at all.

What should be even more troubling for Xbox fans is what the marketing head Aaron Greenburg stated in a post show interview. He says that The Coalition and 343 are working on the futures of Gears of War and Halo.

That may sound great for some, but a large part in why Sony is ahead is because they allow their studios to branch out and make new IPs. It's how we got TLOU and Horizon ZD, and tonight we get to see what Sucker Punch is up to. It doesn't effect me because I pretty much only play on PlayStation but it's disappointing to see talented studios slave away on the same series entry after entry.

It's why it'd be incredibly difficult for Microsoft to convince PlayStation owners like me to ever consider their consoles.

It's hard to discuss a topic like this on a website like this without coming across as a raving fanboy. But yeah, it fills the same gap for Xbox One gamers that the Pro does for PS4 gamers. Native 4k is a great bonus and one I wish the Pro could manage across its software but the "dynamic" solution is a enough to satisfy my desire for prettier graphics (for now!).

It's not going to convert anybody, if that was ever really the intent. The conference seemed more "for the fans" than trying to attract new blood. People seems quite happy with it on some other websites, price n all.

I quite liked the look of some of the jankier games they showed. These often don't demo as well as something like Uncharted but are a lot more fun to play.

I got so sick of seeing that phrase yesterday. And it seemed to appear on almost every single game. What does it even mean, it's practically meaningless? (Yes, I know what it means, but it's like saying "it's exclusively a game, it's nto a book or movie".) Well that and it annoyed me b/c I always use "launch' for consoles and "release' for games, but that's just me. But "console launch exclusive" is 2 words too many.

And really I thought Sony did a better job explaining the Pro. They used games like Tomb Raider to talk about differences of having Pro on a 4k or 1080p TV. I think XXX does 4k natively for some games, but not all, some need an update, but I'm really not sure what the difference is on a 1080p TV. They said nothing that makes me think I need this on a 1080p TV. I at least considered Pro on a 1080p TV b/c of the standard (I think) 1TB vs 500GB and faster FPS 30-60. I never felt like they tried to sell me on what I'd get w/ XXX for my extra $250, which I could use to buy another X1S, which also had a 4k disc drive.

My most wanted game from yesterday was Ori, and I'm just not sure how much better a 2D platformer would be, even if I had a 4k TV. I can't imagine Sea of Thieves - that trailer went on MUCH too long - would look any better either with those graphics.

Yes, ANTHEM looked awesome, as I said yesterday it looked like XCX in HD, but I'm not convinced it will look that much better than on a Pro.

I'm sure they'll sell some of these - there are always early adopters and professional athletes making $2mil and up per year who will want these in their mansions on their 70" TVS - but if Sony is only selling 20% Pro, I'm guessing maybe 15% XXX vs 85% X1S. So what's the point of all that power if most of your base is going cheap? Of course we'll never know, we barely know Xbox sales as it is.

I try to remain objective. The console should be good, much like the Ps4pro I like having games look/run better. £450 is going to be pretty steep for most people when it like the pro is just a mid-gen option that runs the same games. I'm really glad Xbox didn't reveal any exclusives I personally am jealous of, unlike Titanfall and Sunset Overdrive back when the Xb1 launched. Anthem looks fantastic. Did they say anything about timed exclusive content for anything? I was telling my friend if they stole Destiny away from sony we'd be so mad : p

@BLP_Software . U know how u explain a new hardware to the masses?. By showing them games that cannot be played on other platforms. Everything MS shown is coming to ps4 pro and they will look great on both machines. Why? Because 3rd party developpers want parity between platforms or it would hurt their sales. Only 1st party will use the tech to it s fullest.

I feel like Xbox One X is going to seem 'more polished' than PS4 Pro is, but it's also a year later and more expensive.

It's hard to compete with Sony exclusives (or PS4 exclusives rather, doesn't have to be first party). Microsoft really needs to wake up and react. I think they have a great piece of hardware here (on paper), but it's going to be meaningless for gamers like me unless it gets games I can't already play on PC or PS4.

For me this was disappointing. Everything Xbox offered for this new console is also on pc. My pc has the 1080 card in it so beats Xbox x but also other than forza (which did look fantastic) there was nothing big at all Xbox only wise. Nothing to match god of war,last of us, Spider-Man. The metro and anthem trailers looked stunning. But I can get them on pc and PS4 too. I was really hoping a halo 6 tease may happen. But all in all felt very underwhelmed. I'm sure this console kicks ass and can do wonderful things but it really needs some big game injections. Looking forward to PlayStation event. And regardless to Xbox game exclusives. As someone who owns PS4 pro,Xbox one s and a decent pc. It's a good time to be a gamer!

As people may know, I often end up defending MS on here and own an XB1 but overall I was a bit disappointed with MS's showing. I cannot deny that the XBX is an 'impressive' piece of technology. All that power crammed into a small form function with the potential to play games at a native 4k with 4k assets.

However, coming into the briefing, we knew Forza 7 would be revealed and also expected Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3, state of Decay too. Of those though only Forza will really impress at 4k. The rest were not exactly visual powerhouses with a lot of fine detail and textures. However, I expected at least 1 or 2 AAA surprise exclusive announcements. Everyone beforehand expected more too.

I am not denying that Assassins Creed, Metro and Anthem looked impressive, games that really benefit from 4k and Anthem was, for me at least, the highlight.

Much of MS's show was filled with small budget, [email protected]/Indie games and quite a few with 'timed' exclusivity. Again, mainly because of artstyle, a lot of these won't be 'radically' enhanced by 4k resolution. No disrespect to the PS4 Pro, but in all honesty I wouldn't be surprised if these ran in 4k on the Pro's hardware. Not something I can say about the 3 AAA multi-plat games.

You could argue that we as gamers buy far more multi-plat games than we do Exclusives. Uncharted 4, PS4's biggest selling Exclusive was bought by 1 in 5 and the 2nd biggest (excluding remasters) is Horizon, bought by less than 1 in 10.

That being said though, if you are in the market for a 4k capable console, would you choose the one that delivers the best PQ or the one that costs over £100 less, plays all the same games but also has some of the best exclusives. That of course brings me to the Price. At £450, £250 MORE than an XB1s that also plays all these games and offers a 4k HDR Bluray, its rather expensive too. Its almost as expensive as buying a PS4 Pro & XB1s.

I can't deny though that MS at least added a bit more diversity to its rosta with some very Japanese games. It was Solid enough but not spectacular. The best games to show off 4k are mostly tied to Sony - its just whether or not people think £450 is worth it for those multi-plat releases... Over to DF to show us what that extra cost will give us in terms of Image quality and/or performance...

Did they just announced you can play original xbox games on the xbox x? Are you F'n kiddin me??? Again with this whole bc crap? Why would i want all that power to play 12+ year old games on it? Gimme a break!!! If u put a xbox x and a ps4 pro running same game right next to one another is it really going to make that HUGE of a difference? They showed new forza game so what's next? More halo, more gears? Man o man , no new games so bc is all the focus again. This is why i always stick with PlayStation, they always satisfy my gaming needs with new n awesome games

@DLB3 One thing I suppose MS could do is keep the same franchises but freshen them up every once in a while. I mean, look at Nintendo. People have been playing the same key franchises for decades, but Ninty knows how to keep them fresh. God of War on ps4 is another model. It looks very different from the last big GoW game.

As expected, there was nothing even interesting about the Xbox One X (cool name, though). The PS4 would be in the same boat for me if Sony hadn't assembled such a compelling library of exclusive titles. That's the difference and, even given my distaste for home consoles now, it's the reason I own a PS4 and will probably never own another Xbox.

@Brasilkilla Now that's similar to complaining about older movies getting re-released on Blu-Ray.

Gaming is culture, gaming is history. We need to cherish that history and preserve it. Especially now that we've moved on to 1080p and 4K TV's, it's pretty much impossible to play older games decently without resorting to grabbing a CRT set.

I applaud Microsoft for opening up their entire catalogue to their current system. One console to play all Xbox games ever? Now that's a move you can't criticize.

The last time we had something similar, was the first generation of the PlayStation 3, which was able to play PS1, PS2 and PS3 titles. I commended Sony for it back then, just like I commend Microsoft for this now.

Games aren't just about "the latest technology" and "the newest gimmicks" and "the best graphics". Super Mario 64, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IX, Crimson Skies, Sonic The Hedgehog are all still worth playing today, and Microsoft making sure we can in an easy, accessible and respectable fashion on our current systems and TV's is nothing short of amazing.

The people over at Microsoft need to realize that graphics aren't everything. They boast these beautiful visuals, and yes, they admittedly are gorgeous, but it's not worth it if the gameplay doesn't hold up. Games like Horizon and Uncharted 4 have proven what can happen when graphics are combined with story, gameplay, and music. The current contender for game of the year is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The game has a gorgeous art style, and looks flawless on a 720p handheld screen! It doesn't need beefy hardware to succeed. It has story, music, and most of all, gameplay, that do it for it. Microsoft has one graphics and power, but everything else goes to PlayStation. GG Microsoft. GG.

@CAE9872 I am a Sony pony but I can take off my bias and I wanted xbox X to be a stellar console with GREAT FIRST PARTY GAMES. If you think forza 7 is a console seller you are sadly mistaken. Microsoft conference was bad not cause the Xbox X is too expensive but for not having great first party games. All the great games they showed at the Xbox conference are multi plats. Xbox X isn't a huge enough leap from PS4 pro for people to want to spend $100 more or potentially even more if Sony reduce PS4 pro price. I don't care what bias console lovers say. First party exclusives separate the difference between which console you want to buy. Most people don't buy every console that comes out they pick and choose. I have never had more than one console at a time and I choose Sony since they have always had the best games with the most wide variety of choices in genres.

Xbox conference was terrible imo and I wanted it to be great to give good competition to Sony which imo It didn't. Crackdown 3 didn't even show gameplay and was changed to cell shading which tells you something and it coming out this yr. cup head and ori which are indie games are great looking games but not system sellers. System sellers are AAA games and sea of thieves and crackdown 3 nor state of decay 2 will sell massive amount of systems. State of decay 2 look like a crowd funded low budget games and not top quality like The Last of Us which is a system seller. Microsoft just doesn't have the first part talent Sony has.

@get2sammyb No I get it, "it's just video games".....that's kind of the point I was trying to get at.

I guess I've grown board with the discussion at this point. I've been playing video games for a very long time and every generation has the "which system is better discussion". Personally, I'm done with it.

@Akropolon Sony should give us backward compatibility but I personally don't care about playing old games unless they are remastered. It's sad that the Microsoft highest praise during the conference was for backwards compatibility for 16 yr old games vs the new games. I don't think even Xbox fans were impressed with their first party games. All the great games were 3rd party such as anthem, metro, assassin creed origin( not impressed but still system seller to most) and they are system seller type games.

Power means nothing without the software experience. I'm really shocked Xbox would bother releasing a new mid-gen system without truly compelling exclusives to back it up.I'll play Ori 2 on my PC and keep on with my PS4, thank you very much.

It was all just more of the same from Xbox this year. They did not offer a compelling reason to pick up an Xbox One (S, X, or otherwise) for anyone not already interested in the brand. It almost feels like Microsoft is not interested in expanding beyond the audience they already have, and it all comes down to the sorts of games they offer.

Not only fail on exclusive titles but they fail to deliver in games in general. They showed assasin creed, metro and anthem but they didn't say they got exclusive dlc for the Xbox x. I was more of look what Xbox x can do compare to the ps4 pro. Games will looks better, sharper and etc.. I don't think is enticing enough to get out of my way and purchase a the console unless I get it used for $250 few years from now

I thought MS was a bit sucky, that pirate game looked pretty good, Battleground's looked pretty cool and there was a few other's looked ok but the rest was meh. The console didn't exactly have me wetting myself either, I have no urge to go and spunk £400-£450 on it anyway.

@Brasilkilla exactly. Microsoft do not make new ip's that have iconic characters. Phil spencer made it clear he is going for MP type games without the single player experience. Single player characters resonate with fans and they fall in love with these characters and they care about their stories that are told. Plus Sony make games that build great lore and side characters. Gears and halo seem to be good games but Xbox rely on these games way too much.

I'll always be a Playstationer, but I was really willing for MS & X1 to pull it out of the bag and they just didn't. None of their own exclusives looked great at all, they needed their own Horizon ZD to really show off the capabilites of it and put their name back out there.

It's a seriously powerful piece of tech and that should be applauded, but if you dont got the games....

Im also interested in how Sony will promote the Pro now, cos they wont be able to use the most powerful console available anymore.

@BAMozzy it's the culmination of all the Sony exclusives and not just one based on the #'s you gave on UC 4 and Horizon. But these and others that are Sony exclusives make its system so much more appealing. Spider-Man, GOW4, Detroit become human, sucker punch game, wild, dreams, TLOU 2, knack 2( yes it will be a much better sequel), UC lost legacy and more to come.

I can totally see how the One X fits in the pocket with the Pro and there is no denying it's a shiny bit of kit, but it seems like MS has priced the thing too high to lure potential upgraders or 'defectors'. Start of a console cycle I think you can more justify that price tag and although a little high I could see people paying it, now? Not so much.

Also, The Last Night? Errrrrr Flashback much? I really want to play it though.

Okay. First, the Xbox One X is a stupid name. Mainly because it sounds almost exactly like Xbox One S when you say it out loud.

What's staggering to me is that Microsoft managed to make even less of a case for the existence of the Xbox One X than Sony did for the PS4 Pro, and Microsoft have been hyping it up for a year.

Here, we've got a console that is $499. It plays all your favourite Xbox One games and makes them look prettier. But Xbox's problem hasn't been looking pretty. It's been no games. Practically all of the best games on the system are on PS4. In fact, look at their conference - most of the exciting announcements were multiplatform. They're not creating new things. They're not coming up with new ideas. It's Gears, Halo, Forza, over and over and over.

Where's the exclusives? Where's the reasons to care about this thing aside from, what, fourth Forza game on Xbox One? So disappointing.

XOX it's the worst name alongside Wii U and Xbox One (After Xbox 360). And I'm a Nintendo fan, not a Sony one. But you simply can not beat Sony this gen. And Microsoft screwed big last night. Too little, too late.

If memory serves me right Sony had its fair share of multiplatform games at recent E3s, so I'm not expecting it to be packed with exclusive after exclusive after exclusive this year. Granted, at least the PS4 even gets exclusives anymore. Every Xbox One "exclusive" is also on PC nowadays, so it won't take much for Sony to have a better E3 than Microsoft, at least in my opinion.

@Ewflex Of course there is a plethora of exclusives but by te time you get to the 3rd best selling exclusive, the sales indicate that roughly 1 in 20 (5%) bought it. This obviously drops as you move down the sales chart. For all the calls of Bloodborne 2, sales appear that only 1 in every 20 people bought it - a game like 'Watchdogs' sold better on PS4 alone (not inc the other platforms) and yet it seemed a 'surprise' when that got a sequel...

Its no different on Xbox of course - when you look at sales figures. Its 'unusual' to find many exclusives in the top 30 best selling games on that console. Excluding remasters (both the Last of Us and Nathan Drake), only 2 exclusives have surpassed the 3m sellers - U4 and H:ZD to an estimated 60m users. More people bought AC: Unity or Syndicate, more people bought Watchdogs 1 or 2, more people bought the Division despite its 3rd party deal with MS - more people bought CoD (any - incl Ghosts!!) and 15m have GTAv and 15m have BO3 on PS4. Even Fifa 17 - without the bits that MS has sold over 10m on PS4 alone.

I know if you are looking at buying either a PS4 or XB1, chances are that the exclusives may sway your decision - having the opportunity to play seems more important than actually playing. MS seems to be attempting to offer the 'best' place to play the majority of the games that people actually buy. Don't get me wrong, I am very much looking forward to a number of PS exclusives - far more than MS's and more numerous too. I think its a shame that more people don't buy/play some of the best games on the market...

While the article points out there's no breadth of software that will take advantage of the XOX, I think there's still much to be gained by the up-conversion process. I've been playing a lot of 360 games on my XB1, and up-conversion does an amazing job, making it seem like you're playing a native 1080 game rather than a 720 game. I'm sure the same effect will be given to the 1080 to 4K conversion. I'd be more likely to get the XOX than the PS4 Pro.

While I wouldn't expect the OG Xbox games to look great, I'm still very excited for the BC expansion feature as I have a ton of those games I'd like to play again, and doing so on the old hardware is just too undesirable. Xbox has the right mindset, and there's no reason with today's processing power, virtual machine, and emulation capabilities, that every Xbox console moving forward can't support all the games that came before it. The convenience of having your entire library at your fingertips is undervalued by most.

@lacerz Its no different to what Sony did with their PS4 Pro launch. They too indicated that Pro supported games - both old and new would be supported 'free'. In other words you won't have to pay 'extra' to get the 'enhancements' over the base models. You won't pay say £40 for the PS4 version and £45+ for the Pro version for example and this is no different.

@get2sammyb So wait, they abbreviated xbox one with XBO, so does that make the Xbox one X the XBOX?

On topic, i was a bit disappointed with the MS show. I was very much looking forward to a release date for State of Decay 2, and got a delay. Aside from the always excellent Terry Crews, the crackdown 3 trailer felt almost soulless, and looked like it had the same gameplay from the original, over 10 years ago. The power of "the cloud" was certainly not on display.

Sea of thieves has never really interested me, nor has cuphead. A new Ori game has me excited for another beautiful, punishing metroidvania, but it's probably a year out. Overall, if i had to put a score on it, 5/10.

@JoeBlogs I left Nintendo out of my comment because they seem to be doing their own thing these days. But I completely agree with you on God of War, I was actually disappointed at first when I found out Santa Monica was returning to the series (before E3 2016) but it's been reimagined so well that it feels like a new series.

I suppose Microsoft could do this with their existing franchises, but you also need new stuff to win new fans.

@dkxcalibur I don't mean to sound like I'm bragging but I do and I totally regret buying my x1 which hasnt played a game in over a year it's a blu ray player. I won't buy a switch because I know besides a handful of games it won't be played just like the x1 even though I have the money for a switch. Ms conference last night was average at best and showed me no reason as an x1 owner why I need a x1x and I say that as someone who has a 4K hdr tv and PS4 pro

@BAMozzy the bottom line is 3rd party games sell more but exclusives help determine which system someone wants whether they buy those games at a 10-15 million clip or not. There is a reason xbox sold half as Sony consoles. It's cause Sony has more exclusives with variety and story driven along with great indie games.

I get it that a lot of people buy AC games etc which imo aren't that good as well as WD which the first one was ok. Destiny and COD and Battlefield and battlefront sell systems. But exclusives set a console apart from one another. Xbox X isn't enough to pursue people to buy it especially at that price.

Xbo-X looks a fantastic machine, packed with power and it's also exciting to know what it will be capable of, it's just a shame its tethered to the Xbox One, in the sense that games can't be made EXCLUSIVELY for it, because I'm sure it would be able to pull off some pretty incredible feats. It looks gorg and the games looked gorg on it.

That's about it though. Its a good they thing they are pitching it as the "enthusiasts console", because I'm not seeing much reason for the average gamer to invest in it. If history has taught us anything, its that gamers go where the games are, regardless of how much console devs chime on about graphical fidelity and prowess. SNES beat Sega, PS2 beat Xbox and GameCube and 360 beat PS3, but Wii should also be given credit, with Switch looking to replicate that. People like gaming and they don't mind gaming on a less powerful device so long as they have more good games to choose from.

Will this dethrone Sony? Nope. Sony just needs to ride it out and strike back hard with PS5, simple as. The difference won't be enough to knock Sony off its perch, not when it has the gaming industry in vicegrip right now.

Nothing made Microsoft presentation reek of desperation more than the amount of times they dropped the word "exclusive" without context. What does that mean? It's confusing and I've noticed Sony have a habit of doing that as well, only to reveal later that it was timed, but at least a timed exclusive for a year or so earns more merit than an exclusive for a few weeks, so what sort of "exclusivity" deals do you have here Microsoft?

Exclusivity might not bother some, but for gamers like myself who COULD go out and buy every console, but simply choose to buy the ones with the hottest or most attractive games, this wasn't selling me. I have a PC, if anything, some of Microsoft's presentation was more like marketing for games on Steam I didn't know about.

Microsoft simply isn't exciting anymore and that's sad. It's first party studios are slaving away at the same titles and doing nothing new, forcing Microsoft to look elsewhere for exclusives and MS has a reputation that seems to be driving away devs from working with them, eg. Scalebound, Re-Core, Bungie as an entire dev. What's shocking is that even Switch with barely any games is in a more exciting position and I'm planning to buy one.

Simply put, if you have a PS4 and / or PC, there's nothing here for you, go buy a Switch.

@Sensechat it's fine to have different tastes and be somewhat delusional proclaiming halo 5 probably the worst halo story wise is better then uncharted 4 or to call gravity rush 2 not a must have but it's fact sonys first party output and exclusive output in general is way better then ms it's not even close

I think basically we will have a situation where games look and run slightly better on the XOX than the PRO but PS4 will get many more exclusives. The reveal didn't do anything for me and I would like a reason to get one as a gamer but Forza isn't the answer and nor is AC or Minecraft. I find it a bit sad when we already no about far more PlayStation exclusives that were announced last year and they basically have nothing for their new console

Gravity Rush was never a "must have", but on a catalogue of other great games, it's an additional one and one that still has no parallel on any other console. The word here is variety.

God of War compared to Bayonetta? Not sure how these two even fall into the same category.

Halo 5 was better than Uncharted 4? They're not even the same genre, that doesn't make any sense. What if I hate FPS or I hate games like Uncharted and Tomb Raider? Doesn't that kill the argument? We have to compare games of the same genre.

"Forza finally looks set to dethrone GT Sport."As king of racing sims? Or king or racing sims on PS4? PS4 players aren't going to be playing Forza 7 and we still don't know how the two compare, so that's a massive jump to conclusions.

"How many of the big games they announced have actually come out in the last year?The last Guardian and Resi 7. That's it."Persona 5, Yakuza 0, Nier Automata, Nioh & Horizon: Zero Dawn and those are just the AAA titles, not mentioning all the god knows how many other exclusives like Tales of Berseria and draw to death as 2 examples, or the bombardment of VR titles we got over the past year.

I've played most of these, they are superb games, I'm glad I got to play them.

@dark_knightmare2 I guess we're different. I only own the PS4, many 3DS systems, and a Wii U at the moment but I know I'll pick a Switch up at some point. I'll probably not get a X1 because I can't justify buying it. However, if I had more time and money, I would definitely own an X1 too. I have to admit that I did not watch the Microsoft presentation yet, but the last time I saw a clip for the Rare Pirate game, it looked really good. Plus, I've always thought the Gears of War games have been excellent ; and the Forza games are the best in console racing games.

@Ewflex Of course it helps but its not always the defining factor. MS at launch had more AAA exclusives but the fact it was 'under-powered' for multi-platform games, as well as the E3 2013 'mistakes', it struggled. For the first few years, all we heard was how much lower the resolution was on the XB1 - long after MS had removed or dealt with the issues people had with E3 and its not like they were 'lagging' behind with exclusives either back then and had deals with CoD and Fifa too. However if you were looking at buying either, do you go with the Console where games are 720-900p or the one that has 1080p gaming.

I bet if MS had built an XB1 that was as powerful as a PS4, ran games at the same level, a lot of the XB360 users would have upgraded to an XB1. Game performance matters to gamers - not saying these wouldn't buy a PS4 later to play the exclusives but if you are buying a majority of multi-plat games, you want the best visuals/frame rates possible for your money. Even now the XB1s is cheaper but still can't match the PS4 for game performance and the 'Exclusive' line-up is a bonus...

All this talk of Xbox One X lacking exclusives, Why? Because they are on PC also? What about those of us who don't own a PC or have no interest in owning a PC? The argument is then entirely different and the term exclusives really does mean exclusive to those who don't own a PC.

Sony may have the marketing rights with certain third party games like Destiny 2, CoD WW2 etc. but we all know they can perform better on an XB1 X if the developers put the effort in using the full power of the console.

@MaccaMUFC I can't speak for everyone, but at least for myself, I am referring to games I can play on the current Playstation or Xbox consoles. PC doesn't even factor in as an option for me. What matters to me is the variety of content I can play (and am interested in playing) on one or the other, and that is what ultimately determines which platform I am going to go with. Xbox simply offers fewer games that I am personally interested in playing across the board than Playstation does, when I take into account all of the software available to those platforms.

That wouldn't be an issue, but it already lacks compelling exclusives compared to PS4, it doesn't then help that whatever is left can be easily obtained on a PC.

If I was a PS4 only player, Sony would have my attention locked down, unlike 360 which had exciting games all the time, XOne is visibly lacking and I'd already have access to all those multiplat games, so why go to a console that has LESS choice just for MORE power? Never has this ever worked for a company, it only becomes a real factor when it's 50/50, but PS4 dominates this generation hands down. The original Xbox was groundbreaking for graphics, but PS2 players didn't budge.

As a PC person myself, there is even less reason to own the Xbox One X. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing short of brilliant news for Xbox One owners, but it's kinda clear the news was met with a resounding "meh", Switch on the other hand is selling like hotcakes, because it is different and people can see a NEED for it.

I'm more concerned that gaming is getting stuck in a rut content and story telling wise. All the bells and whistles and fancy sports car launches (why oh why was that there) can't hide the tired and generic state that many big games seem to be veering into.

@Pulse2 You say XB1 "lacks compelling exclusives" that's just an opinion isn't it, admittedly the PS4 does have a lot more exclusives but there's only a couple that I'm interested in like TLoU and Uncharted so I'm not going to be owning a PS4 just for those titles.

Now that the XB1 X is the most powerful console and that 3rd party games should run better on it depending how much effort the delevopers make use of the extra power, it could make people switch to XB1 X if they care about True 4K and 60fps. Again I'm referring to people who have no interest in PCs.

@stevejcrow MS have recently partnered with Porsche and they showed off the new 911 GT2 RS to the world for the very first time just because they could, as a lover of cars it was a nice surprise.

I watched the full conference, and I have to say, I wasn't impressed outside of the fact they made the X smaller than previous iterations while being more powerful. Those games were all so bad, at best I'd only want Forza, and even then, not really. Before every game, it said in "4k" but honestly, some of those games don't need to be in 4k, they just need to work and be exciting to play. I didn't see much exciting to play other than Forza and Metro, but the latter is multi-plat so I have no problem getting that on the Pro.

I honestly think that everyone here who's been negative towards the XB1 X are bias and just bothered that PS are now second best, I'm referring to the hardware not software, because that's all you can say that you have the games, better exclusives but that's just your opinion. Not everyone likes what PS offer, I only enjoyed TLoU and Uncharted, wasn't interested in any others.

The fact of the matter is the XB1 X is now the most powerful console in the world with True 4K, 4K Blu-Ray player, backward compatibility (whether it interests you or not the option is there) and 3rd party games that should run better should the developers make use of the extra power. It just offers more as a console, where as PS4 Pro can only offer more variety of exclusives.

When PS5 is eventually announced you wouldn't find me saying anything negative about it unless it's absolutely warranted, if your genuinely not interested in XB1 X then fair enough but otherwise just accept that overall the XB1 X is the best console right now even if you think it's too expensive or has a "lack" of exclusives, as a console it's the best in the world right now.

It is an "opinion", but here's the thing with opinions, if more than one person shares the same mindset, then it is more than enough to sway buying tendencies. Word of mouth is the most dominant form of marketing. It can make or break your business. Opinion is what drives the success of popular products and brands eg Apple, and crashes others eg. Xbox One at launch.

Right now the popular opinion is that Xbox One has no "compelling exclusives", which isn't just a sentiment I preach alone, but a mindset seemingly shared by many.

We talk about exclusives because "power" is a hit or miss topic, you need games to demonstrate power, the visual fidelity needs to be substantially significant over the Pro for Playstation owners who have a spree of games to look forward to to even consider buying an Xbox and this is all banking on the idea that Sony does nothing and simply watches their userbase slip to the other side, which let's be honest is illogical, since Sony likes to bat back everything Microsoft throws at it.

Sony could answer this several ways:

Drop more hard hitting exclusive AAAs (more than enough for most people) OR drop the price of its consoles OR
drop another iteration of the PS4 in 2019 OR drop the PS5 in 2019 OR throw out more deals, more options and more things gamers want to keep them loyal OR simply keep pumping out that variety and push marketing so much so it overshadows Xbox One X.

Sony already has everyone outside of the US feeding from its hands 3-1, in some cases more, it might lose some edge in the US with Xbox One X in the game (most likely in fact), but whether that will be significant enough to bother Sony, is yet to be seen.

Its not about badmouthing Xbox One, it's about discussing whether the power jump is worth the hype and money. This was the same discussion for EVERY console that boasted power specs before the Xbox One X, this isn't the first time this has been discussed and its not the last, stop taking it so personally.

@Pulse2 The only people with these mindsets seem to be bias PS fanboys who have no intention of buying an Xbox ever, even if XB1 X came with compelling exclusives, you could bet they still wouldn't budge, too loyal to the brand.

As for Sony's strategy for staying one step ahead of MS with the console race, they couldn't afford not to, MS is one of the richest companies in the world their net worth dwarfs Sony's. The Xbox brand could collapse and it wouldn't be too bad for MS but if the PlayStation brand collapsed it would be catastrophic for Sony so they need to be on their toes constantly making sure the PS brand stays ahead of the competition.

It's funny you should talk about PS Fanboy bias, then proceed to recite MS's global worth as a company which is the usual goto argument for Xbox fanboys and an argument I've heard since the very first Xbox which has absolutely no relevance to the topic other than to be an Xbox fanboy argument.

Sony is fully aware of the conditions here, but you have to give them even more credit then that they can keep up toe to toe with MS the "richest company in the world". Just goes to show that money doesn't always buy you fans, otherwise why hasn't MS just thrown money at the problem and bought more fans than Sony?

Ah, funny you NOW say that "graphics aren't everything" after you abandoned that sentiment after the PS2. Yet, to most of you guys even though (for example) the Wii U didn't have the best graphics on the next-gen market, yet people didn't buy it, but yet it was filled to the brim with great games and exclusives (except not a lot of third party AAA titles unfortunately) Companies like Nintendo have been saying this for years, and we've been enjoying great games from them, and the rest of the Big Three (including Sony) and second and third parties, using that mindset. Sure, graphics are a important piece of the video game itself. But it doesn't have to look like you are watch a movie, to think that it's good. However, the reason most people bought a PSP, PS3, Vita and the PS4 was because "the graphics looks better." Sure they do. But its about how the game feels, the game's stable fps, and how to make the game fun for years and years to come.

I think the most important things to have for console ecosystem is games, you need both 3rd party and interesting 1st party games. Nintendo only have 1st party games, xbox only have 3rd party games (the big games is only halo/forza/gear), but because playstation has both, thats why it sell better than competition.

@DarkmarkUnited I had the wii u, the reason that console tank is because it only have 1st party games, and then a long drought of games. People seems to forget the drought.

@doctommaso Yup, the reason I bought ps4 and not xbox1 is because in the end of previous generation ps3 has all the interesting game while xbox 360 becoming the 3rd party/shooter only console, the japan/rpg games dried up because nobody is buying them on xbox platform. Even if xbox1 power and price is the same as ps4, I still choose ps4 because I believe the games will better and more varied there. Xbox is usa console, playstation is worldwide.

Phil says they are only prepared to show games now that actually have release dates, games we can play in the next year - something we saw Last Year too to a degree but having seen Fable Legends and Scalebound cancelled and the constant barrage about Cuphead's release date, MS are keeping it to games they are confident they can bring to the consumers in the upcoming year.

As for 3rd Party deals, this is of big benefit to PS gamers. Phil states:-

I don't know what deals get written. I've been pretty open about, I'm not a fan of doing deals that hold back specific pieces of content from other platforms. You don't see that in the deals we've done with Assassin's and Shadow. We'll have a marketing deal on those, but I don't say, hey, I need some kind of Strike or skin somebody else can't play.

Therefore games like AC:O, Metro, Shadow of War and Anthem won't (or shouldn't) get any 'extra' content...

As for Minecraft - We want Minecraft to be playable on all platforms with cross-play. I'm committed to that. Our relationship with Nintendo has been great. But you'll have to ask them [Sony]. The team has done a nice job supporting Minecraft on PlayStation platforms pre us owning it, post us owning it. I like the fact it's there.

Now I know we as gamers - especially those of us with XB's, wanted 'more' from MS's, maybe expected more too especially with Sony's approach to E3, but to try and put some context, it seems they have a 'different' idea (at least Phil has since he took over). Sony are 'happy' to show their long term plans, show games we can look forward too for 'years' to come, but MS want to show you the games coming in the 'next' year before the 'next' E3. Not saying one is right, but it does put some context into this. You can argue that Anthem is more likely to hit the latter half of 2018 and post E3 - maybe why it was kept to the end as a glimpse at what's to come and also shows the 'power' of the console. Never the less, you can't argue that Sony's this year fell a bit 'flat' - not because the games were 'poor' but because we already saw them last year - a bit 'deja vu'...

Anyway, I thought this was interesting to put some context on it, give some news about MS's 3rd Party deals (ie no extra content - obviously not adverse to buying 'timed' exclusivity - but the content, when it does come, should be at least identical) and Minecraft too...

I salute my fellow gamers who prefer Xbox. They now have a more powerful console to upgrade or buy into. Despite not having more exclusives than Sony really wish the Scorpio success... as competition breeds friendly banter and wanting to strive for better! Xbox one x will only push the engineers and developers at Sony to slave away harder lol! That's a win for us PS gamers! I gotta admit I'm a sucker for 4k gaming atm and can't go back to HD. Xbox X has given me something extra to think about. Sadly relying on Forza, gears and halo isn't enough to fully tempt me. Add an extra 3-4 exclusive blockbusters and yep that'll even the playing field.

Yes 4 days late.And no I haven't read everything, so this might be brought up before.

But what about the little fact that the xbox one S can play 4k discs ?Which seems to be a tad, just a tad, of an oversight for Sony who are trying to push the Pro. You'd think that a machine that can play dvd, blu ray and 4k discs, would be kind of an incentive for consumers to buy more 4k content.